Established in 1953, we provide a platform where members can Share and celebrate achievements; Learn via a range of courses, professional advice, training and study tours; Buy via TUCO’s EU compliant catering frameworks and wide range of suppliers – maximising value through the combined £146m+ annual spend of TUCO members, and Grow their business through latest market research, trends and analysis.
Levels of membership:
- Full membership
- Affiliate membership
- Associate membership
Membership is open to organisations which:
- are higher education institutions, by virtue of their full time equivalent student enrolment number for courses of higher education exceeding 55% of their total full-time equivalent enrolment number, or further education establishments and which, in each case, have an in-house catering service
- apply to the Company in the form required by the directors
- are approved by the directors.
Our Regions & Chairs
Why TUCO?
- Delivering annual savings to members in excess of £15million
- £146million+ annual spend
- Giving members access to almost 300 quality-assured suppliers
- 19 EU-compliant framework agreements
- Full time CIPS qualified team dedicated to cutting costs
- No barriers to entry – 80% of TUCO suppliers are SMEs or micro enterprises
- Award-winning training academy
- In-depth, insightful market intelligence through TUCO research
- Sharing best-practice through member case studies
- Access to added-value benefits such as:
- TUCO Online: a revolutionary web-based eProcurement system that provides a dynamic online purchasing portal
- Further Competitions: a personalised procurement service that is FREE to members - we work with your staff to offer as much or as little support as they need, freeing them up to focus on other areas.
- Efficiency Review: working with a leading consultancy, we can offer you a personalised, independent, measure of your performance.
Professional Links
TUCO has established links with a variety of industry providers.
APUC
APUC Ltd (Advanced Procurement for Universities & Colleges) is one of the six Centres of Procurement Expertise formed as a result of the McClelland Review of Public Procurement in Scotland, published in March 2006. The not for profit company was created in January 2007, and is owned by Scotland’s 60 universities and colleges. It operates entirely in the interests of these institutional stakeholders. By working jointly as one team with client institutions APUC supports the embedding and consistent application of good procurement practice within Scotland's universities and colleges, incorporating EU Directives in the tendering process. APUC ‘s aim is to maximise the contribution that advanced procurement makes to Scotland's investment in teaching, research and knowledge transfer so that institutions can deliver more with the funds that they have available. Not only does APUC conduct tenders on behalf of their members, it also looks to maximise savings by collaborating with the other consortia and sectors by promoting relevant agreements to their members. In this way, APUC facilitates the TPL agreements to the Scottish Higher and Further Education Sector.For further information about APUC, their collaborative and e-procurement solutions, please visit the APUC website.
Campden BRI
Campden BRI issues regular Food Alerts for the benefit of its membersthrough the provision of independent scientific and technical expertise, training and advisory services, and by providing leadership in innovation. We serve members across the food chain in the agriculture, food, drink, ingredients, catering and associated industries. Best industrially relevant knowledge Product, package and process innovation Processing efficiency Improved product quality. Product safety Camden BRI’s Mission is to enable Members and other clients world-wide to attain Campden BRI provide a unique resource for the food and drink industry offering the widest range of R&D, technical services, analysis and training activities.
Crescent Purchasing Consortium
The Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC) is the only purchasing consortium operated exclusively for institutions working in the Further Education (FE) and Academies sectors. The CPC operates under a Board containing four College Finance Directors, the Chair of the FE Directors of Finance Group, Peter Brewer (Managing Director of the CPC), a representative from the procurement team at the Association of Colleges, a Purchasing Advisory Group elected member of procurement staff from an institution and an Institution's Principal. Members of CPC have access to hundreds of professionally arranged contracts covering a wide range of goods and services with new and improved contracts being added constantly to the portfolio. The CPC are committed to providing its members with a first class procurement service, which provides excellent value for money from contracted supplies and services. The CPC encourage its members to use TPL’s Catering framework agreements so they can optimise value for money through collaborative procurement.
CUBO
CUBO is the professional association for senior managers in higher education whose responsibilities include the strategic development, management and administration of an institution's commercial business. Whether run in-house or outsourced at its core this includes the:Residential portfolio Catering and retail operation Conference facility which also encapsulates business and leisure tourism. Read the CUBO Annual Review 2013/14 Members may also have responsibility for a wide variety of other activities including sport, security, printing, transport, cleaning, childcare, retail, customer services, maintenance or even running the whole estate. In these areas members have direct contact with most of the of the HE student population and in 2011 generated revenues in excess of £1.4 billion. CUBO members are drawn from senior levels at the majority of UK Higher Education institutions. They are professionals in senior positions reporting mainly to a University senior officer such as the Principal or Vice-Chancellor, Secretary or Registrar.
EAUC
The EAUC is a not for profit Member based charity run by Members for Members. We are financed by subscriptions and service generated revenue which funds our work of representing and promoting the interests of Members and the provision of support services to drive sustainability to the heart of tertiary education across the UK. We have a membership of over 300 university, college and learning and skills providers. Benefits of Belonging:We develop and deliver Member services and resources that inspire and assist sustainability professionals in their day to day jobs as well as campaign for paradigm and policy change by individuals, institutions and governments. People are the key to and core of our work. For them, we maintain networks of over 3,500 sustainability professionals ready to engage in dialogue. We disseminate information and resources via newsletters, websites and events and lead the way by project managing ground-breaking sustainability projects that reach out to all quadrants of the sector and bring about tangible change. To meet the need for more specialist learning and information sharing, we seek out and launch a range of communities of practice to encourage focused and efficient networking.Enjoy the benefits of belonging to the EAUC and be inspired by learning. Visit our website www.eauc.org.uk.
Fairtrade
The Fairtrade Foundation is the independent non-profit organisation that licenses use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products in the UK in accordance with internationally agreed Fairtrade standards. A registered charity, the Foundation is the UK member of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) which unites 21 labelling initiatives across Europe, Japan, North America, Mexico and Australia/New Zealand as well as networks of producer organisations from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The Foundation's vision is of a world in which justice and sustainable development are at the heart of trade structures and practices so that everyone, through their work, can maintain a decent and dignified livelihood and develop their full potential. To achieve this, Fairtrade seeks to transform trading structures and practices in favour of the poor and disadvantaged. By facilitating trading partnerships based on equity and transparency, Fairtrade contributes to sustainable development for marginalised producers, workers and their communities. The Foundation’s mission is to work with businesses, community groups and individuals to improve the trading position of producer organisations in the South and to deliver sustainable livelihoods for farmers, workers and their communities by: being recognised as the UK’s leading authority on Fairtrade bringing together producers and consumers in a citizens’ movement for change using certification and product labelling, through the FAIRTRADE Mark, as a tool for our development goals being a passionate and ambitious development organisation committed to tackling poverty and injustice through trade The Foundation's four key areas of activity are: Raising public awareness of the need for Fairtrade and the importance of the FAIRTRADE Mark Working with our partners to support producer organisations and their networks Facilitating the market to grow demand for Fairtrade and enable producers to sell to traders and retailers Providing an independent certification of the trade chain, licensing use of the FAIRTRADE Mark as a consumer guarantee on products For more information, please visit our website http://www.fairtrade.org.uk
Institute Of Hospitality
The Institute of Hospitality is the professional body for individual managers and aspiring managers working and studying in the hospitality, leisure and tourism (HLT) industry. The Institute has been in existence since the 1930s when it began in the UK. The Institute's reputation as a membership organisation promoting quality standards and education has grown in its 75+ year history resulting in a membership spanning more than 100 countries around the globe. From HLT students to retired Fellows, the Institute continues to support members' professional development throughout their careers, wherever they are in the world. The Institute is managed as an educational charity whose primary purpose is “to promote the highest professional standards of management and education in the international hospitality, leisure and tourism industries”. We exist to benefit members in their professional and career development, whilst continuing to improve and promote industry and management standards into the 21st century. More information is available at Institute of Hospitality's website: https://www.instituteofhospitality.org/
LUPC
Established in 1968, LUPC is a not-for-profit professional buying organisation owned by its Members, for its Members. LUPC’s core membership is made up of universities and colleges of higher education in and around the capital, along with some colleges of further education. Around a third of LUPC’s membership is also drawn from other not-for-profit, public and third-sector organisations from our neighbouring sectors in the arts, sciences and education. We are one of the four higher education purchasing consortia in England that together constitute English National Purchasing (ENP), the national body working to improve collaboration across the regional purchasing consortia and other sector purchasing organisations. LUPC is a company limited by guarantee and is funded from membership subscriptions and marketing premiums added to some of our agreements. LUPC employs a small team at its Bloomsbury office location, working in conjunction with procurement professionals and other experts from our membership. LUPC’s Director is Andy Davies MBA FCIPS.
North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium
The North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium (NEUPC) is one of six HE regional purchasing consortia in the UK (HEPCW, SUPC, NWUPC, APUC and LUPC). NEUPC lets and manages framework agreements on behalf of its twenty three member universities. Utilising a partnering approach NEUPC operates as a centralised procurement function and structure for its members. NEUPC’s vision - 'To be the best collaborative partner that fully supports the procurement activity of our members' - advocates working together to provide collaborative procurement support, guidance, systems and processes and agreements that are aligned to, and actively support our members needs, values and objectives. NEUPC collaborate closely with other purchasing consortia to ensure that value for money is achieved, not only by its members but also the other purchasing consortia members. Some of NEUPC’s agreements are tendered exclusively for NEUPC members but we also collaborate with the other regional purchasing consortia to share the tendering workload and this means that sometimes an agreement will be awarded by one consortium but will be available for other consortia to use. Owing to the high spend potential for NEUPC’s agreements; we are required to competitively tender our framework agreements and contracts under EU public procurement regulations. This involves a process under which we advertise forthcoming agreements in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) and then assess and evaluate tender responses under strict guidelines. NEUPC ensures that suppliers of goods and service are capable of serving all the NEUPC’s Members and, for national contracts, across the UK higher education sector, with a high standard of quality and service and a commitment to competitive pricing.
North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium Limited
North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium Limited (NWUPC) is a not for profit company owned by its Higher Education Full Member Institutions. Its main aim is "To provide a structure for higher education institutions mutually to secure value for money in matters relating to the purchasing of goods and services". NWUPC is one of 6 regional higher education purchasing consortia in the UK and is made up of Higher Education Institutions and associate members from Further Education and other Public Sector Bodies. NWUPC is responsible for letting EU compliant Framework Agreements. All agreements are let following a competitive tendering exercise and are tendered through the European Procurement Directives. For further details on the NWUPC please visit the website: www.nwupc.ac.uk
SUPC
Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium (SUPC) is the largest of the six regional higher education purchasing consortia that operate throughout the UK. SUPC was formed in 1974 when a handful of universities came together for the collaborative purchase of stationery. It has now grown to a membership of over one hundred higher and further education institutions and offers its members a wide range of collaborative purchase agreements covering most commodity areas.
Support, Training & Services Ltd
Support, Training & Services Ltd (STS) is a UK based international company, specialising in "food safety" and "health & safety who offer a full range of services in respect of these areas including training and supplier accreditation. STS audit food manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, all by Environmental Health Officers, additionally trained as Lead Assessors of quality systems. STS audit to their own published standard which is based on UK, European and International food safety and due diligence standards. Frequency of re-audit is based on an inspection rating scheme, which assesses the risk arising from the products supplied, the size of the business and performance during the audit. Accreditation certificates are presented to approved suppliers. STS provides monthly reports to TPL of the supplier audits that have been carried out and these are held on file at the TPL Offices. An overview of the audits applicable to the TPL Contracts is available.
WRAP
WRAP were set up in 2000 to help recycling take off in the UK and to create a market for recycled materials. As understanding grew that 'waste' is actually 'stuff with value' and that wasting resources made no environmental or commercial sense, governments across the UK increased efforts to tackle these issues. Over the last decade, Wrap have helped and continue to help governments devise strategies to deal with these issues through their expertise, research and practical advice. More information is available at Wrap's website: http://www.wrap.org.uk/category/sector/hospitality-and-food-service
